Taenia saginata

Taenia saginata
is a parasite so its habitat and nutrition comes from another organism.Now the Beef tapeworm has two hosts that it infects in a lifetime: the
definitive host and the intermediate host.

Habitat

The Definitive Host:Us!The adult worm spends most of
its time in the human’s small intestine.The
scolex connects to the epithelial lining of the gut and because of
the little surface area it connects to, a very immunological response occurs in
the body to the tapeworm’s presence.Taenia saginata will produce many eggs
that will transported through a human's feces and passed
on to the intermediate host.

The Intermediate Host:Cattle act as the intermediate host in the
reproductive life cyclewhen the eggs passed
through feces
of the infected definitive host is ingested
by the cow.
The digestive enzymes will break the thick shell of the egg and allow the zygote
to form.They zygotes then penetrate
the mucous layer and enter the circulation of the bovid.This is where the young larval stages of
T. saginata form a pea-sized, fluid
filled cyst, also known as “Cysticercus” and these
cysts seem to form in the muscularfibers
and are sometimes seen in
specific organs like the lungsand liver.

Nutrition

Nutrition is obtained by absorption across the tapeworm’s
flat body membrane.Carbohydrates
from the host are the most important for
T. saginata to absorb, especially in
the form of polysaccharides.This
form is easiest for the worm to breakdown into the usable form of glucose.

Now take a look at T. saginata's
adaptations and how it has evolved over time to
become such a good parasite!